Christmas Cheer

Some more Christmas cheer:

a gift from my sweet niece and grandniece 💕

I'm off to get ready for Christmas Eve mass and then our traditional Chinese Christmas eve dinner...just for the two of us.

Merry Christmas
Have a bless day!

Christmas Cards

Me:  I'm thinking this year instead of making our Christmas cards, I'll just buy them.

Sweetheart:  And break tradition???

Me:   I'll be back, I'm running to the craft store.

Apparently Sweetheart didn't get the quick and easy memo.  I don't want to say I was unmotivated this year, it was more of a lack of inspiration.   I had no idea what to do -- I generally plan my cards out months in advance of November and this year I had nothing.  

So I walked around Hobby Lobby and Joanne's for like three hours searching for inspiration.   And this is what I came up with:  green glittered Christmas trees with gold stars

I already had the cards, I just needed the green and gold paper and a tree paper punch.

I already had the stamps but I bought some green stamp ink:

It was that simple.  I started the cards during Monday Night Football and finished them during Thursday Night Football of that same week.   Right on schedule, I mailed them out on December 2nd.  

I made a couple extra to give to the maid and landscaper, along with these mini envelopes I got at HobLob to add a cash gift to their cards:

The Tree Skirt

Every year I struggle with a tree skirt that seems to be too small for our tree.  Every year I struggle even more with spending $60 for a bigger skirt.  This year, I decided to get crafty.   There was a post I read about a blogger that used a fabric table cloth as a base for her tree skirt and then just added some embellishments.   The first thought that came into my head was "that seems like it could be quick and easy".   And it was!

I bought a 60-inch, round table cloth from Target and 6 feet of white pom-pom ribbon from Joanne's:

I wasn't sure how much ribbon to buy but I figured if I centered the pom-pom ribbon in the middle (or front) of the fabric it would be an even distribution.   And if I came up short, I could either buy more ribbon or arrange the skirt so it wouldn't be obvious.

I used 'stichery-witchery' to fuse the ribbon to the fabric.

And it turns out I was about two feet too short.   But once I got the skirt around the tree, I thought I could easily conceal it.  

When I started getting the gifts around the tree, the back of the skirt was not visible so I left it alone:

This really was a quick and easy project and I love the way it looks!

It begins

It begins with the wreath.   I made this wreath 10 years ago -- my, how quickly time seems to pass.   This year I took it apart, fluffed it up and rearranged the picks and the bow.   The "Joy" ornament is from Target.   Old faithful, she is.

That dollar section at Target can really get me going.   I always run in there for just one thing and 15 minutes later I end up with a basket full of goodies from the dollar section.   I found this cute "Merry Christmas" felt banner for $3:

 I wasn't sure where to put it at first then I thought it would look perfect on the mirror in the entrance way:

This year, I hung our stockings in the entrance way.  It was quick and easy and this year I was all about the quick and easy.  Plus, I think they look pretty good there.

One for Sweetheart and the small one for Grievous

And one for me and the small for Naboo:

I tossed the Noel pillow on the bench and I'm all set.   Quick and easy.

This is really how it normally looks, it's a catch all for stuff --okay, usually my stuff.   But it's still pretty and merry!

I was setting up my MIL's new iPhone and I ran into this:

 My BFF's husbands birthday party a couple years ago.   Good times!

Christmas Tree 2016

Simply having a wonderful Christmas time and enjoying every moment of it! This year the tree got some love on it (last year I was recovering from an emergency surgery so it sat bare all December long).   The walls are painted and the drapes are up.  Things are good.  But that tree.  It's what makes me smile every time I walk into the room.....

My view every evening as I sit to watch a Hallmark Christmas movie.   Sigh...I love it!

Elf on a Shelf

Let me explain.   We had an "elf on the shelf" challenge at work.  Our team had to scramble to put together  our scene and then email the picture to the coordinator.  Turns out the only way I could get the picture to rotate to the portrait position was to save it on a social media site so that I could then copy and paste.   It was a time crunch thing.